1984 Trip on Yangzi - Chongqing to Shanghai

15. Twilight on the Yangzi

We wondered what we would do about food. When we walked about the ship we discovered that we were the only foreigners on board. We discovered that they were selling food chips in one of the lobbies. A menu in Chinese characters was on the wall with a colored disc, red green, orange, blue, etc attached. People would come up give money and buy their choices and would be given a number of colored discs similar to poker chips. We were somewhat perplexed as what to do. We didn't even know when the food would be served. Later that afternoon someone came to our compartment and beckoned us to follow him.

He took us to the dining room and then to the kitchen. Looking into the various pots we held up 1 or two fingers to indicate what we wanted to eat without a word being said. They then gave us an appropriate number of various colored chips and sat us at a table. At that time we were alone in the dining room. A few minutes later the doors opened and hordes came in for what was scrambled seating. By and by a person with a dish would come and take a certain colored disc and leave some food. After eating we didn't know what the cost was so we held out some money and let them take what they wanted. The dinner cost 11 cents US.